Damaged Goods

Chapter 23- One Step Closer

Marcus was panting heavily, trying to stay conscious after the pain of being shot and the blood loss. He was becoming light-headed, but knew if he took the time to rest, he'd be dead. All but two guards remained, then he could finally face Mason. The problem was, he didn't have a clue where the guards had ran off to. Mason would either be barricaded in his office or the control room. He prayed it would be the office but had his doubts. Marcus had installed the security system himself, so he knew every inch of the house just as good as Mason did.

If he could just get close to the control room upstairs, he might have a chance.

Might.

He squeezed his eyes shut from the pain lancing through his body as he slowly stood up, bracing himself against the wall for support until he decided his next move.

The first option was to head straight for the control room. From there he could disable electronics, track everyone's location and even lock himself inside if needed; but if he did that for too long, Mason was sure to have back-up coming and he couldn't sit in there forever.

The second option was to search out the men first or wait for them to find him. Again, there was no guarantee they would. They could always wait for back-up to arrive before they outnumbered him even worse.

No, if he was going to do this, he had to go with option one.

Peeking around the corner, he didn't see any men waiting to blow him to smithereens, so he crept out and began to cautiously walk down the narrow hallway towards one of the two sets of stairs. It was a fairly new house, about four years old, so there weren't any creaky stairs to worry about. It was men hiding at the top of them that was the real issue.

As he got about half-way up, his senses picked up on whispering from the top. Marcus took out one of his flash-bangs, pulled the pin to activate the charge, and launched it to the top.

"Grenade!" one of the men shouted from the top of the landing.

Not even a second later, a loud 'bang' sounded throughout the house, accompanied by a blinding white light. The use of flash bangs was ideal for instances like this; it left Marcus with almost a full minute to do as he needed while the men were left seeing nothing but blackness and spots from the intensity of the light.

Marcus ran as fast as his side would allow up the few remaining steps and drew out his UMP once again. The two men stood crouched on each side of the stairs rubbing their eyes and groaning. The noise from the grenade would temporarily hinder their hearing too, but one seemed to notice Marcus's footfalls as he took out his gun and began firing aimlessly.

Too bad in the opposite direction he needed to.

Marcus took him out first with a quick pull of the trigger. A bullet whizzed right past his head as he turned to kill the last man standing between him and Mason, missing his face by mere centimeters. He rapidly shot off a few rounds towards the man remaining, missing on the first but landing the next two solidly into his torso.

Marcus knew the man would eventually die from the injuries, but wasn't willing to risk going down with him, so he walked over and put one more through the man's skull before proceeding on to Mason.

Finally, the moment he had long awaited!

As Marcus took the next few steps towards the control room, the blood loss made him stumble against the wall. His side was on fire and he could feel the warm liquid slowly running down his leg into his socks. It took twice as much effort to even breathe and part of him wanted nothing more than to slide on down the wall and sleep, but he knew if he even thought about stopping moving he wouldn't start up again.

He was running out of time if he was ever going to get away with this alive.

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Nixon sat awkwardly across from Aria down in their safe room/ shooting range. The young woman had fallen asleep after about three hours of pacing and groaning. She was sat on the sofa, curled up in the fetal position, ironic for her situation of being pregnant. He could see what his boss, well; former boss saw in her. She was absolutely stunning. Even pregnant she seemed almost flawless. Glowing.

But anyone could see she only had eyes for Marcus. He hadn't met the man, but the way her eyes lit up and she had smiled talking about him said enough.

She was in love.

He just hoped Marcus could pull something out of his ass and make it out of this to get back to her. The thought of her crying and losing the man she cared so deeply for, cut through Nixon's chest like a knife. As he watched her sleep, he prayed for Marcus to come back safe and sound.

But praying hadn't ever got him far in life, so he picked up his phone and made a call, trying to buy the man who had stolen Aria's heart some time.

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One, possibly two chapters left! There will be a sequel if I get enough requests!